Tweets,

I've been a lurker at this sight for a couple of weeks, but after having
several great bird experiences over the long weekend decided it was time
to contribute.

I was hanging Christmas lights on Thanksgiving Day (11-27, you do what
you can outdoors when it's not raining) and heard a familiar sound high
overhead - a raven croaking. Looking up I was astounded, it was not 1
raven or even 2, but 13 (how ominous) cruising along at a leisurely pace
following the SE/NW ridgeline that runs from the Lakemont neighborhood
to the Hilltop neighborhood in SE Bellevue. I've seen very large flocks
of ravens (200 or more) in Central California in the early fall, but
never more than 3 together in Washington. Is this flocking behavior
unusual here?

Later that same day, while on the back deck, I noticed a number of birds
acting in typical thrushlike fashion scurring about the edge of the
greenbelt onto which my house abuts. Thinking that these might be a
rather large group of the (seemingly) scarce Varied Thrushes we've been
looking for (I've only had 2 so far this autumn) I grabbed my field
glasses and again had a surprise - Townsends Solitaires - 20-25 of them
- berry and bug picking. They stayed at the lawn/greenbelt border for
10 minutes or so before heading off in one great start, scared off by a
nasty grey squirrel.

The same grey squirrel(s) prompted me to try new tactics for suet
feeding. I build small suet feeders exactly to the dimensions that
commercial suet cakes come in and used a denser hardware cloth than
normal for cover. Much loved by the very abundant Chestnut Backed
Chickadees and Red-Breasted Nuthatches - and on Saturday the 29th by a
Pileated Woodpecker. Rather comical seeing this monster trying to
balance on a 5X6 inch scrap of wood and poke his big beak into the small
harware cloth. I think I'm going to have to make a new suet feeder for
this guy and the flickers and work on squirrel prevention by location.

The final delight of the weekend was on Sunday, around 11 am. I took in
a movie at the Cinemas at Pickering Place in Issaquah but first ate at
the Red Robin very nearby. Plopped in the middle of this retail/office
park is a small pond which often has an interesting bird or two - but on
Sunday I spotted: 2 great blue herons, 2 pairs of hooded mergansers, a
pair of common mergansers, numerous buffleheads and mallards, scaup (I
couldn't tell which without my scope), canada geese, mud hens, grebes
(again - no positive ID), a redhead, and a single yellow-headed
blackbird. All these while walking between the restaurant and the movie
theatre and passing over the small bridge that crosses this really very
tiny (1-2 acre) pond. The pond is now VERY full, overflowing onto the
sidewalks which normally let one circumnavigate it, but proabably well
worth the trip for bird surprises. I suspect that part of the reason
for abundance of birds was the low numbers of people at the pond. Try
weekend mornings, as the office buildings right on the ponds are hopping
with activity by 7:00 am on weekdays.

Good Birding to all

Rob Conway
Cougar Mountain - Bellevue, Washington
robin_conway at hotmail.com

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